… The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.
Jamelle Bouie, at Slate, “Michelle Nunn lost her Senate bid. But no one in Georgia sees it as an ending“:
Ayisha Cissé was one of the few people left after Michelle Nunn conceded Georgia’s U.S. Senate race to her Republican opponent, David Perdue, thanked her supporters, and left the hotel ballroom that—for most of the night—was host to a large celebration of the campaign.
Cissé was disappointed with the results, but she was also hopeful for what might come next. “This was historic,” she said. “When you’re making inroads, you’re walking a middle road. Michelle inspired a lot of people, especially in a state primed to reject someone of her gender and her values.”
This sentiment was typical of the people who witnessed Nunn’s final address, which might have had something to do with the nature of Nunn’s remarks. Nunn had started her remarks with a concession to Perdue, but she didn’t quite give a concession speech. Instead, she claimed a partial victory. “We have laid the groundwork for the future,” she said. “We have shown the people of Georgia what a two-party state looks like.”…
… Over the course of a year, the Nunn campaign and its allies successfully capitalized on Georgia’s rapid demographic change, registering tens of thousands of new voters and bringing them to the polls. In the process, they turned a lean GOP election into a genuine tossup, forcing a real effort from the state and national Republican parties. Indeed, when all the votes are tallied, Nunn will have outperformed Democratic candidates in the 2004 and 2010 Senate races, and will have likely matched President Obama’s performance in 2012. And while we can’t quite say Democrats will have the advantage in 2016—though, with a more diverse electorate and the higher mobilization of a presidential race, it’s possible—we can easily predict another competitive election…
“Redistricting is on the horizon,” says Rep. Stacey Abrams, the Georgia House minority leader and head of the New Georgia Project, which made news as an unprecedented registration effort aimed at Georgia’s minority communities, but is focused on the long term. Specifically, Abrams—and the Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock of Ebenezer Baptist Church—see Georgia’s rapid demographic change as a chance to construct a genuinely interracial political culture…
***********
Apart from vowing that we will fight again, what’s on the agenda for the day?
Baud
I did not sleep well last night. I wish I could take a couple of days off, but that’s impossible.
Patricia Kayden
I’m in shock that Hogan is the Governor for Maryland. Didn’t see that coming at all. Looks too close in Virginia to call the Senate seat as well. Big Sigh.
But as Gloria Gaynor said, “I will survive”.
Professor
Let the impeachment hearing begin. When?
Schlemazel
Can we have peak wingnut now?
bemused
I was very relieved to wake up this am and learn that my Rep. Rick Nolan won over Stewart Mills. Close, 2 points but a win. Dodged another Cravaack idiot. Franken won by a healthy margin but doubt it will stop rightwingers from believing there was some kind of voter fraud in a state with one of the cleanest election systems. Thankfully, Simon won SOS over Severson who campaigned on “fast track” voting.
Bad news is MNGOP gained control of house.
Botsplainer
@Schlemazel:
It appears that my hesitation on joining KyNect may have been prescient. I’m at least reasonably assured that I can keep my current bullshit policy for the foreseeable future.
This is not going to be a normal obstructionist final two years Congress. This is going to be Ted Cruz on steroids, and will include blowing up the Full Faith and Credit over the repeal of the entirety of the ACA.
Those nihilists may even shoot for everything they’ve ever dreamed of while daring Obama to resist and provoke a secession crisis.
They’re a minority faction and fascists, but they’re driving the bus and will make the country a mostly ungovernable set of corporate baronies that will, over some time, consolidate over even the liberal areas to rule with an authoritarian fist.
We got our dystopian future. It looks mostly like Robocop and the original Rollerball, with a heaping helping of Revolt in 2100 thrown in to bring in the religious nutters.
Maybe I can expatriate to Costa Rica or Belize. Wife’s got NZ and AUS connex; that’s always an option.
Debbie(aussie)
I am so very sorry that you have all been so disappointed by your fellow country-persons. I can say I feel your pain. My country is currently being run by a party whose leader cannot open his mouth without lying (this is not hyperbole).
I can’t understand why fear so over rules everything. Most surveys say that citizens of our western democracies want a society that leans to the left, if asked about single issues (Obamacare is a prime example). Why do they vote against that. Why are they so easily convinced to vote against their best interests.
Where the hell has empathy gone.
ETA: I am off to sleep now, had an awful day. I hope Wednesday does not suck as much as Tuesday.
Baud
I’ll be interested in the turnout numbers. Did we not increase our turn out, or did the GOP just turn out more?
Botsplainer
@bemused:
The one bright spot is that KYGOP was unsuccessful in taking the House.
Nicole
It’s an incredibly depressing morning. That said, I do give props to the land of my birth for voting out Corbett (even if the specific county of my birth still went for him). It’s the first time since the two term limit was instated that a PA governor has not gotten the full two terms.
Heh. I say. Heh. That said, I will not ever move back to the land of my birth, as I fear the long-term effects of fracking on the water supply will be pretty bad.
Botsplainer
@Debbie(aussie):
People of color, sluts, guns and abortions. And one day, they might get rich.
John S.
Florida Democrats simply did not turn out to vote. In Broward county turnout was around 40%, while in most of the larger red counties it was 60%. It is estimated that around 2 million Democrats in Florida didn’t vote, despite a 400k advantage.
That’s how we end up with Rick Scott squeaking by. Again.
Tommy
This election was a bloodbath in my district. I can’t stress this enough, it has been 70+ years since a Republican was elected to the House in my district. It is unheard of. I am a raging liberal but not “in” with the “in folks” in my district. I might reach out and thinking the wake up call has been sounded.
Keith G
I haven’t watched the news. When my browser fired up, Google’s first headline confirmed what I knew was going to happened.
On the whole, Democratic candidates have lost the knack of connecting to the id of American voters in general and the middle class in particular. It’s not an easy assignment, but it is one that needs to be taken on with a fair amount of success if the Democrats wish to see more consistent legislative success.
It’s not enough to be logically correct and just plain smarter than the other guys. It’s not enough to pin hope on some yet to happen demographic shift (which by the way, may not produce voters who will be thinking the way we want them to think). Voters want to be rallied, they want to led, and they want to be given the chance to be part of a hopeful narrative that connects them to something greater. When Democratic leaders have utilized this, they have seen success. When Democratic leaders have walked away from this…well,
Debbie(aussie)
That comment @ 7 is mine. Not sure what happened. Sorry.
Cheryl from Maryland
@Patricia Kayden: Yes, totally shocked. A water carrier for Erlich’s brand of revenge politics. Someone who said, all that stuff about birth control, naw, I won’t do that. Marylanders, get ready for Erlich hell redux.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Botsplainer: “Most men with nothing would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich, than face the reality of being poor.”
‘Cool, Cool, Considerate Men’, 1776.
Keith G
Gee, noting is working this week. Had Word Press given me permission to edit, this is what I was going to add to…
@Debbie(aussie):
See above (as in my previous comment).
ThresherK
My wife and I are up to Maine for my MiL’s service, interring the ashes at the family plot, returning late tomorrow.
She and her brother, her only sibling, were on the outs for some time but over this they’ve been more amiable, almost out of need. I hope it continues.
raven
Somehow we all expected something different than what has happened in every mid-term of the second presidential since Truman?
JPL
@Baud: Yesterday morning when I saw full parking lots at polling stations, north of Atlanta, I did not take that as a good sign. I still thought Nunn would be in a runoff, though.
Elmo
I’m so withdrawn and angry that I’m toying with just shrugging it off, to protect my own mental well being.
I’m reasonably well off. I have a great job, I’m already married (thank you 2012 Marylanders), my wife is on my health insurance. I’ll benefit from a repeal of the rain tax.
Fuck it, everybody else shrugs at midterms, why shouldn’t i?
Rob
@Cheryl from Maryland and @Patricia Kayden
I just woke up and found out about Maryland. I should go back to sleep and wake up again to see if it’s a bad dream. This is not what I wanted to hear.
bemused
@Botsplainer:
Wow, good news!
Another Holocene Human
@Keith G: This is crap. If you drill into the exit polls guess who didn’t show up? Democratic leaning Latinos. And guess why. Also, via NYT, racial anxieties (see #Ferguson) kept white voters voting GOP, economics be damned.
Rob
@bemused and @Botsplainer
That is a little piece of good news. I’m also hoping that the Virginia and the Alaska races go Democratic.
Another Holocene Human
@Elmo: Isn’t the Chesapeake in unspeakably bad shape?
When Boston Harbor was a mess we sucked it up and paid to clean it up as ratepayers. Okay, it’s somewhat regressive, but so is pollution.
Why was this different?
Tommy
@Rob: Lived in Maryland for a few years. Love the place. How this happened is foreign to me.
Morzer
I am still recovering from the “concerned citizens” of Maine reelecting that cretinous thug LePage. Thanks, Eliot Cutler. Feel free to masturbate yourself with a rusty chainsaw any day and every day.
beltane
@Another Holocene Human: “Racial Anxieties”=The United States will be Nixonland now and forever.
JPL
@Rob: Since I refuse to link to a news site, is Alaska still in play?
Rob
@Tommy
I wasn’t following the campaign at all. A commenter last night said that Brown ran a terrible campaign so evidently folks stayed home. The last time a Republican took the governorship here was also (partly) because the Democratic candidate ran a poor campaign.
Tommy
@Another Holocene Human: Chesapeake Bay has been reworked till it is amazing. Not always the case, but it is now. When I lived there years ago it was the best of the best. Clean. I know it is even better now.
beltane
@JPL: No, forget about it.
Phylllis
Back to work after having election day off. At least we get new leadership at the SC Dept of Education. And she won’t be a rubber stamp for whatever foolishness Nikki cooks up in the next few years.
Rob
@JPL:
Yes. I was on the Alaska Dispatch News site a few minutes ago. A headline says “Sullivan lead holds in Alaska U.S. Senate race; Begich won’t concede”. It looks like the independent running for governor, Bill Walker, has a “slim but steady lead with 95 percent of Alaska’s precincts counted.”
Thlayli
How I knew Tim Bishop (NY-1) was going to lose:
6:30 AM — I voted before going to work.
10:00 AM — text from the Bishop campaign. “Today is Election Day! Polls are open until 9:00 PM.” Not sure why I’m getting this after I voted, but whatever.
3:45 PM — voice call from the Bishop campaign. The lady asks me “did you vote today?” Yes.
4:40 PM — another text. “According to our records, you have not voted yet.” This is an hour after I talked to the phone-banker, and ten hours after I signed the registration book. At that point I knew it was over.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Morzer: I hope that you’ve got the important phrases in Korean: mekju chusayo, suju chusayo, chongjung chusayo.
bemused
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
Ain’t that the truth! A local Republican owned a small, very small, business who was complaining to a friend of mine about a proposed tax raise. The friend said, Well that would affect people making over $200,000, not you.” The business owner said, “Well, it might some day.”
Hope springs eternal in Republicans that some day the GOP cutting taxes and spending will bless them with riches even though it hasn’t happened yet to the rabble.
Botsplainer
@bemused:
KYDEMS in the House stayed significantly blue doggy to hang on.
You might think it isn’t a big deal, but it makes a significant difference in terms of the amount of wealth that is extracted from Louisville in order to fund infrastructure, schools, public employment and public benefits in impoverished areas of the state that scream about “niggers in Louisville taking everything” while demanding laws to home rule powers away from the city, especially those requiring that businesses be fair to them homersechshuls, anything impacting a gun and anything requiring some level of responsibility for environmental discharges. Of course, these are people who straight pipe their gray water directly into creeks and streams, so what can you expect?
Right now, for every dollar Louisville sends to Frankfort, it gets 50 cents back. That trajectory would get much, much worse with a GOP House.
Baud
@raven:
The scale didn’t have to be this bad.
Rob
Some good news: HIckenlooper is up by 12,000 in the Colorado governor race: 886K to 874K with 92% of votes counted according to denverpost.com
Rob
@Baud #41
I agree!
bemused
@Botsplainer:
Oh yeah, I do realize. When Republicans have more power in MN, they always bring the state down.
Elmo
@Another Holocene Human:
I didn’t say I had a problem with the rain tax; I don’t. Lots of other people did, tho, and a lot of them are middle-class African Americans in Baltimore and PG County. They voted, and they didn’t vote in lockstep for Brown. Hence Hogan won and we will repeal the rain tax. I’ll benefit financially as a homeowner, and sell my boat when the Chesapeake goes back to being a phosphate pond.
Patricia Kayden
@Cheryl from Maryland: Ironically, I don’t recall Ehrlich being that bad. In fact, Steele was his deputy and was pretty quiet (although he turned out to be bonkers when he became the RNC Chairman). But I fear Hogan since during his victory speech he stated that the people of Maryland have given him a mandate. I’m terrified about what he’s going to do with that mandate. Hopefully, the Maryland state legislature is still dominated by Dems.
Patricia Kayden
@raven: You always see the bright side of things. You’re right but it still stings.
raven
@Patricia Kayden: Sure it does but what the hell, keep on pushin. . .
Cervantes
I imagine it’s not an easy day for you, Anne Laurie, and I do appreciate the reference more than you know, but please, please, please tell me you’re not channelling Coakley again.
Speaking of which, Baker did much better in Waltham than I expected. Is this simply another facet of my ignorance or was his showing there a bit of a surprise to you as well?